How would you respond to this question: What does God want from us more than anything else?
Many would say moral devotion.
Others would say ethical behaviour.
Some would say religious ritual.
But these things, even though they may some good attached to them, are not what God wants from us more than anything else.
The essence of the Christian life can be summed up in two words “love affair”.
God wants to have a love affair with us!
The Bible says that we were created as an object of God’s love. God made us to love us. He made us to be an object of His love.
God wants to have a relationship with us.
This means that we are created for the purpose of having a relationship and, as a result, the most important thing we can know in life is that God loves us. And the most important thing that we can do in life is to love Him back.
Jesus said it like this in Matthew 22:37-38
“’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.”
Nothing is more important!
If we do this we will fulfill our primary purpose in life.
If we miss this part of our life, our life is a failure because we’ve missed the very reason that God created us and put us on earth – to love and be loved.
Over the next three posts I want to share 3 ways that we can show our love to God:
1. Talk to Him.
2. Listen to Him.
3. Give to Him.
How does it make you feel to know that God wants to have a love affair with you?
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I really like your point on this kind of relationship between human and God, this is really a kind of special relation like love.
There is no more special relationship than our relationship with God!
Kevin Martineau recently posted…Show your love for God by talking to Him
So right, Kevin. If we attempt to live our lives or complete all our obligations or religious duty without the deep love–experiencing His love, we will become miserable. Love will remain and it sustains and fashions and enables us to do what we can’t on our own.
Thanks.
Love not duty must be our motivation.
Thanks for sharing Jason!
Kevin Martineau recently posted…Be delighted in God
The verse that comes to mind when I read this post is 1 John 4:19 “We love, because He first loved us.”
In my own personal life, I had to go through quite a few things and embrace a place of not being in service, not having an external appearance of religious activity, not expecting myself or others to accomplish spiritual activities and just to reach a place where I believed that God loved me and truly accepted me “as is”.
Not putting effort and thought into doing something to please Him or earning a relationship…just accepting that I am His beloved creation and that even though I believe there is a purpose for my life and ways to demonstrate devotion – my existence is enough to merit abundant love, mercy and grace.
Absolutely terrifying coming from a background of study, service and lots of external faith practices. What would happen if I let my soul be that unfettered by rules? Would I run amok and go wild? Could it be that simple and generous?
What I learned was that removing the control patterns and embracing even a small glimpse of being that loved, transformed my life into more faith, more service and far more compassion and mercy for others who likewise didn’t have to do things to please my idea for what they should do, think or say.
Maybe peels it back a little further than your post, but something no one ever discussed with me until I was almost 40 and had been a Christian since age 5.
Hi Kathyrn:
When everything is all stripped away what matters most is God’s love for us and our love for Him. It is not about duty or rules.
When I truly love someone I desire to please them. Not because I want to earn their love but because I love them.
Thanks for sharing!
Kevin
Kevin Martineau recently posted…Be dynamic for God
Very true Kevin. It happens that there are some people who really believe in gods word and some are not. But still, i am a follower.
Thanks for sharing Mika!
Kevin Martineau recently posted…Missing opportunities
I Dont know why, because if you are catholic you must Follow god, but if you are not they are not fallowing it. But Me Still salute to god now and forever..
It doesn’t have to do with whether we are Catholic or not. It has to do with having a personal relationship with God that comes through what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross when He paid for our sins.
Thanks for sharing Fatima!
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I agree with that kevs, because when god holding that cross and take some suffer with no comment to him..
God is really one of the reasons why we all have the blessing is life…We should be thankful to HIM..
We should always be thankful to God!
Thanks for sharing Ja-C!
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Great post and such an important message. I’m reminded that if God is with us, who can be against us. Thanks for sharing this positive message. Sometimes I just need to remember that His love is really all that matters.
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What matters most is God’s love for us and our love for Him.
Thanks for sharing Cindy!
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“Love affair” eh? You failed to mention the fact that it’s a fear-based relationship where “god” threatens his creations with eternal damnation and suffering if they don’t comply. Reminds me of the abusive husband that threatens to kill his wife if she leaves, then reminds her that he loves her.
You definitely have a mixed up view of God.
God does not threaten anyone. He has chosen to love us unconditionally and He has chosen to give us the choice whether we have a relationship with Him or not. When people choose not to have a relationship with Him, He honours that decision.
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I think he has a quite biblical view of God.
God made most men so that he could send them to hell. The majority of the people living today will be sent straight to hell because they never heard of Jesus. You have absolutely no guarantee whatsoever that you picked the correct religion.
If your right millions of Muslims will perish in eternal flames because of the fact that happened to be born in the wrong geographic region.
Your religion teaches that no can come to the father except through Jesus. If a person doesn’t accept Jesus in this life, then a loving God will allow to suffer an eternity of punishment.
That is the most wicked and cruel thing I have ever heard and you wish to love that?
I meant to say “if you’re right …” Pardon the poor grammar on my part.
God created every person so that He could have a relationship with them. Unfortunately, mankind chose to reject God’s love and God’s plan and decided to go their own way. Despite this, God still pursued mankind and sent His one and only Son to take mankind’s punishment so that we could have the opportunity to come back into relationship with Him again. It’s a free gift that is offered to everyone but everyone must choose to receive it.
Kevin Martineau recently posted…Show your love for God by talking to Him
God could have just forgiven everyone and left it there. Instead (according to Christianity) he decided to divide men and cause endless wars over who has the correct religion.
Think about this, if the Muslims are right, you have rejected the Koran and you will burn in hell for eternity. They have as plausible a case for their version of God as you do.
I would love christianity as religion if what author said was true.
i.e.
“God does not threaten anyone. He has chosen to love us unconditionally and He has chosen to give us the choice whether we have a relationship with Him or not. When people choose not to have a relationship with Him, He honours that decision.”
Instead i had very opposite experience when a christian lady from nearby church knocked on my door few years back and tried to convert me to christianity. She said if i do not choose to accept gods love(i.e convert to christianity) god will condemn me to hell indefinitely. I said “thats it. I do not want to follow any god who threatens to punish me if i dont follow him”.
I am open to and love all religions that teach us to be good humanbeings. But hate all religions that have dictator like god.
Am i atheist? Agnotist? Dont know…….
To the skeptics of the love affair that God has with us:
It would be very reasonable to think that God is perfect and that we are not, as a result of his perfection he cannot ignore our imperfection.
Thankfully he is also a God of love and mercy and he made a way for our wrongs to be punished without us being destroyed. We can relate to him because he loved us enough to make a way for it to be possible.
Thanks for sharing these words of wisdom Rick!
Kevin Martineau recently posted…Show your love for God by talking to Him
I think this is an interesting idea, but I approach it kind of from a literary perspective. Imagine that we are all fictional characters in a novel God is writing. We get to live our lives and make choices and be pretty much whatever kind of character in this unfolding story that we want to be. So what sort of role do we want to play? A hero, or a villain? I have tended to think, then, not in terms of a love affair with God, but in trying to play the kind of role that God (or any reader with the God’s eye view) can’t help but love. Take the circumstances you were born into, and shape yourself into the most resourceful, courageous, compassionate, generous, honest, heroic and noble person you can be.
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Very inspiring blog, So true about it. My love and trust to God is foolish i never doubt to his power as he showered in my everyday living.
I keep standing on the quotation that I make for God
“For what I have now is a gift from God, And for what I become is my gift to God” God showered be a lot of blessings but its up to me on how i handle it or use in order to make it more productive.
Great point Pettina26!
Thanks for sharing!
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God is good All the time, he is our savior, he never leave us no matter what happen.
This is really a great article to read. God is really one of the reasons why we all here. Even we have a different beliefs and religions we know that we are all sons of God. Thanks for the post and god bless us all.